Blindfold Symbol Analysis

In the Hallow Eve game at the Donnelly home, players must blindfold themselves and select an object that supposedly foretells their future. As such, blindfolds are associated with knowing the future, and they demonstrate a person’s powerlessness over fate. The next-door girls are eager to play the Hallow Eve game—presumably, as young women, they are optimistic about what the future holds and therefore they’re happy to put on the blindfold and catch a glimpse of their exciting fate. One of the girls does, indeed, place her hand over a ring, which represents upcoming marriage. In contrast, Maria is clearly much less optimistic about her future—she fears that she will be alone forever, and her hesitation to put the blindfold on and play the game may reflect her dread. She probably doesn’t want to know what the future holds, since she fears the worst—and, indeed, she selects the clay, which represents impending death. Interestingly, once Maria has selected the clay, she doesn’t take off the blindfold. Blindfolded, she refuses to name the clay or admit what it is—she simply refers to it as “a soft wet substance.” Perhaps, then, taking off the blindfold and confronting her fate would be too difficult, so she chooses instead to maintain her denial. In this way, the blindfold both makes it possible to see the future, and to continue to deny that future—but in neither scenario does it seem that Maria would have the power to change her fate. The blindfold, then, shows the players how powerless they are over their destinies, whether those destinies are exciting or too terrible to accept.